Berlin, March 14 (RHC)--German lawmakers voted on Wednesday to re-elect Angela Merkel as chancellor for a fourth term that may prove her most challenging yet as she takes charge of a fragile coalition.

Lawmakers voted by 364 to 315, with nine abstentions, in favor of re-electing her.

“I accept the vote,” a beaming Merkel, 63, told lawmakers.

In office since 2005, the leader of the Christian Democratic Union leader has dominated Germany’s political landscape and steered the European Union through economic crisis.

Merkel was due to be sworn Wednesday in the Bundestag .Ministers will then be sworn in later in the day - almost six months after last September’s national election in which both coalition partners lost support to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).